jitter

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A nervous action; a tic.
2. (countable, in-plural, often, uncountable, with-definite-article)A state of nervousness.

   “That creepy movie gave me the jitters.”

   “But Bolton deserve real credit, seeking to take advantage of their jitters at every opportunity in typically determined fashion.”

   “It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.”

   “Interviewer: How do you feel coming back here? What is constantly evoked in you when you see your center again back in Little Rock? Clinton: Well first of all if I don't come back about once a month I start to get the jitters.”

3. (countable, uncountable)An abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics.

   “Now you have mirror-clear TV without picture flopover, jitter, tear!”

4. (countable, uncountable)A random positioning of data points to avoid visual overlap.
5. A program or routine that performs jitting; a just-in-time compiler.

verb

1. (intransitive)To be nervous.
2. To position data points randomly to avoid visual overlap.